Feed

Slovak Christmas Cookies

Posted by Margarete on Dec 12

It’s a little less than 2 weeks before Christmas and time to start planning for the Christmas baking. You might think it’s too early to start, but in my family of Slovak in-laws, since there are so many different kinds of cookies to make and they tend to have a long shelf life, a week before Christmas is just fine to begin. The most common cookies in our family are:

  • medovniky – honey cookies
  • vanilkové rožky – vanilla-roll cookies
  • linecké kolieska – Linzer cookies

Armed with my grandma-in-law’s recipes and having the experience of helping with these in the past, here’s how to bake them.

Conquering the Nut Roll Koláč

Posted by Margarete on Oct 11

Nut-roll koláč is probably the most commonly-known Slovak dessert. For me it had become a mountain to climb and conquer. Why? Making good koláč is not easy, at least it’s not easy for me. To get the dough just right you have to know what you are doing and that takes experience. Additionally, any time you are dealing with yeast things get exponentially more complicated. For me the risk that my entire attempt may be sabotaged by uncooperative yeast always looms.

Since my Slovak in-laws are visiting, I asked my aunt-in-law to show me how to make koláč, working in my kitchen, using American ingredients. This has probably been the best learning experience with Slovak baking thus far.

Google Adds the Slovak Language to Their Translate Service

Posted by Margarete on Oct 05

Have you ever been surfing the Web and come across a site in another language than your own, and wanted to understand what it was saying? Google provides an online service that can translate pieces of text or even whole Web pages. It’s called Google Translate. At first the service proved translation between a handful of languages such as German, French, Spanish, and English, but over the years, they’ve applied their machine-learning algorithm to other languages. Just in this past week or so, Google has added Slovak to its translation service.

This means that it is now possible to translate Slovak text and Websites to English and vice versa. Take a look at the Google Translate page, with a small piece of translated text:

Vianočka - Braided Sweet Bread

Posted by Margarete on Mar 12

Vianočka is a common yeast bread in Slovakia. It is a braided bread, slightly sweet, and eaten often at breakfast time. Vianočka is available in just about any grocery store in Slovakia. It is so common in fact, that I’ve never seen or heard of any Slovak baking it at home. Why would you bake a basic bread if you could just pick up a loaf at your local market?

Vianočka is also a good bread to bake for Easter. In Vienna I’ve seen this bread sold at bakeries with a few colored hard-boiled eggs set between the weave of the braids. It’s very festive.

In Search of the Perfect Medovník

Posted by Margarete on Jan 08

I have recently realized that I am obsessed with medovníky, and while in Slovakia, I have been constantly on the look out to find the most beautifully decorated medovník that I can possibly find. Taste is also important, if I can bring myself to actually eat it or encourage others to do so.

What are they? Medovníky are spice cookies made with honey, that are usually decorated, sometimes quite intricately, with a white-colored icing. In Slovakia they are traditionally Christmas cookies, but in fact, they are made and sold all year round.

Zemiakový Šalát

Posted by Margarete on Dec 23

There are many traditional Christmas foods that are prepared in Slovakia. Depending on the region, the traditional Christmas dinner varies slightly, but over all it consists of the following listed below. Interpretations also vary. The interpretations are those from my Slovak family in the Nitra region.

Segedínsky Guláš

Posted by Margarete on Dec 08

Guláš stews are common in the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. What exactly is guláš? (gulyás – Hungarian spelling; goulash – English spelling) Broadly defined, guláš is a hearty, paprika-based dish that originated in Hungary. In Slovakia, the most common types of guláš are segedínsky guláš and perkelt, which is also a meat stew, usually served along with a pasta or with dumplings.

Segedínsky guláš is made with milk and cream, and only a light-colored meat is used, such as pork or chicken. Looking over the shoulder of my grandmother-in-law while she prepared it one afternoon, I took note of the recipe:

Basic fruit-topped cake

Posted by Margarete on Nov 07

One kind of ovocný koláč – dessert fruit cake that I sampled several times in Slovakia was for a basic vanilla-flavored cake that could be topped with whatever kind of fruit you may have on hand. In the summer this recipe is popular because fruit and berries are readily available, particularly those that have ripened in people’s gardens.

Palacinky Recipe

Posted by Margarete on Jul 19

One of the favorite things my Slovak husband likes to make and eat is palacinky (pronounced pa-la-tsing-kee). It’s hard to describe exactly what a palacinka is if you are not familiar with central-European cuisine (palacinka-singular, palacinky-plural).

In English, a palacinka is a pancake, but I find the French word crepe, a bit more precise. In Russian they are called blini (blintzes, the anglicized version of this word). In Austria they are called Palatschinke and in Germany Pfannkuchen, but it’s all the same thing: a very liquid-like batter made from flour, milk, and eggs that is pored into a hot pan or griddle and cooked. They are then filled and rolled up with fruit, or jam, or Nutella, or a combination, and then served with a dollop of whipped cream. This sounds more like a dessert, but my husband likes to have it as a main course.

Thank goodness for the recipe book of traditional Slovak meals that I bought on a spur of the moment. Here’s the recipe. We’ve tried it. It’s a winner: